The Women's Rolling Football Thread season 2024-25

[DuncinToffee]

All ready for a brand new season ⚽💪

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/sports/4879827-the-womens-rolling-football-thread-season-2023-24

I was really pleased and relieved for the England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton that she showed grit and courage till the end. She’s only 24. And the wonderful Mary Earps is a hard act to follow.

Great match, although it was excruciating watching the penalties!

Yes, and anyone rhythmically drumming in the stands. Water cannon please.

Thank you for this, as a Chelsea fan who’s watched her grow into the game and potentially be one of the greatest goalkeepers in the world, it nice to see people not hating on her. I loved earps. But everyone was acting like Hannah was pulled from some Sunday league team to become England number 1. She’s a fantastic keeper, and no she isn’t Mary, she’s HH and it’s her time now 🔥 there’s a reason why she played every every single game for Chelsea and is now England number 1.

@DuncinToffee Did you clock the Penalty score tonight? Sadly the majority cannot take penalties even now! The Swedish goalkeeper took one ahead of outfield players! That’s a joke surely?

These are professional players who want to be respected. I respect Harry Kane and the latest crop of England players who are scoring penalties plus all the club players who do, but professional women need to do better. By all means be cheeky and roll it in - but do it after the goalkeeper moves! She telegraphed where she was going every time!

It was poor and a better team would have been 4 up in the first half. Jess Carter is too slow. The defenders don’t get back quickly enough and then they back off the attacking player and won’t commit to the tackle. The Swedish player who scored could have been tacked yards out from the penalty box. The Swedish players easily got past the defence and we need to get faster and commit to tackles. We are very vulnerable to fast forwards, fast attacking full backs and accurate passing. We passed inaccurately - just not good enough. We had better hope Italy have an off day or an off few minutes!

I was so proud of the Arsenal contingent - Stina Blackstenius, Beth Mead, Leah Williamson, Michelle Agyemang and fabulous Chloe Kelly all had fantastic games.
I had a feeling that LW's tackle on Stina B and Hannah Hampton's save from Rolfö in the first half were going to be crucial, and it proved to be so. 3-0 would have been too big a mountain to climb.
Gripping match, most stressful and ludicrous penalty shootout since France Vs Australia in WWC 2023!

Why wasn’t the Swedish goalkeeper penalized for moving before the shot was taken? She clearly did at least twice. In the men’s game, that’s a retake. We simply couldn’t believe what we were watching.

Goalkeepers are allowed to move as long as at least one leg remains on the goal line. Didn't notice her being off her line in any off the penalties, so no need to retake.

I agree that it was embarrassing.
Most of the players who missed seemed to have such a short run up and didn’t take the time to compose themselves.
Delaying our subs, in particular Carter who seemed to lack confidence in everything she attempted, nearly cost us the game and would have done against a better team.
I hope that extra time, and the injuries and exhaustion won’t mean a full strength team for the semi.
I disagree that SW timed things perfectly. I think she got lucky.

I disagree that SW timed things perfectly. I think she got lucky.

Yes

The media seem to worship her though.

Just heard on the radio that the initials of the goal scorers spell ABBA.

What's wrong with SC?

It is a good singalong song and brings everyone together. I can't think of a better song.

You will hate this:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLx2sEmMcXq/

Personal taste @MustTryHarderAndHarder

It just gets on my nerves. I don't mind the drumming.

This is funny.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/1m2koy1/disgraceful_sign_from_the_sweden_v_england_game/

Also, Michelle's reaction when they should have gotten a corner was brilliant.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fdisgraceful-sign-from-the-sweden-v-england-game-tonight-v0-ose5tc7ycidf1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1170%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Db83b309fb9d13ef847eb9cc4c35484da9f7db60f

And some of the comments are brilliant.

@kiterunning I didn’t think SW timed the subs well either. Unfortunately Jess Carter is slow. She’s easily beaten by fast running skilful opposition. For one Sweden goal we had 4 defenders available but they backed off until the player got into the penalty box. It’s so
much better to tackle before then. You won’t give away a penalty outside the box! Lauren James believes the hype around her. Way too cool and casual. Others just lose the ball and some of the passing was woeful. Even worse than Spurs under Ange!

The big problem is that huge numbers of supporters don’t seem to see the shortcomings. Radio 5 last night was just one big love fest of celebration. No one is prepared to look at where we are poor - where’s Roy Keane when you need him? We need a dose of realism because a good, fast, accurate team with great defending will kill them off. The Italians might - fresher and fitter. The French will.

Im not sure we are as good as we think we are and Sweden definitely exposed limitations. Like Spurs under Ange, holding onto their lead was beyond them and they made mistakes. We’ve got to eliminate our defensive mistakes and we made some howlers against Wales and did again last night. Pretending we are brilliant is so stupid and “girly”. I much prefer the realism of men’s football that doesn’t need to be biased - the pundits are more honest and the women need to move towards that and away from uncritical euphoria.

The womens game is getting more competitve but the commentary hasn't caught up yet.

the pundits are more honest and the women need to move towards that and away from uncritical euphoria.

💯

@TizerorFizz

I really don't think that anyone thinks that going 2-0 down for most of the match means that we played brilliantly.

But what was brilliant was the comeback bc of the depth of our squad.

SW left it late to make the subs as she always does and we could quite easily have lost like we did to France and that is why I don't rate her as a manager.

I don't want to hear Sweet Caroline myself. Just as I want an England team to have an anthem other than the UK one of God Save the King.

Jerusalem perhaps.

@DuncinToffeeAgree. It’s still in sales pitch mode. Sell cheap tickets and fill stadiums. It’s very superficial.

@MustTryHarderAndHarder Agree that subs were too late but Jess Carter was at fault for the first Swedish goal and interestingly The Guardian rated nearly every Swedish player better than ours. Getting to 20 minutes to go, 2-0 down with little effective creative play won’t hack it against stronger teams. We did improve but we lost control for at least 45 mins.

Well, Sweden are a very good team and when they were handed the first goal on a plate, we were obviously rattled bc the players are human and not robots. They then took advantage and scored their second.

Sweden really struggled against Germany until the red card, so they are vulnerable too.

Yes, I agree that the commentary is too gushing sometimes but I also think that the punditry for the mens games is sometimes too negative.

@TizerorFizz
Yep!

I just think the commentary should reflect more the professional status of the players. Resilience, hard working should be the expectation.

I fully understood Fishlock's reluctence to celebrate Wales' achievement of making the tournament. Expectations should be far higher than that.

I can do without the likes of Keane on punditry.

@DuncinToffee I’m not a fan of Roy K either but just listening to a group of lobbying women who praise everything and use cliches and hyperbole but little sensible critique is a total joke! This was post match radio 5. Tv was a bit more honest. Someone should be able to analyse what was good and what was poor. The Times makes a reasonable effort today but why do we just have to listen to shrieking glee with no objective punditry? The Times, thankfully, points out poor tactics, late use of subs, inability to change tactics after half time, Jess Carter’s issues, poor passing and costly mistakes. I think some of this can be rectified but Sweden made us look ordinary and it’s worrying. The fact they were also woeful at penalties saved us. We were a shambles. Why cannot women score penalties? Any ideas? Power and skill come to mind, plus rushing and not thinking. Someone could have tried a Panenka with a moving keeper!

Also did anyone find on BBC HD the commentary disappeared into the stadium noise? We couldn’t hear it. Radio 5 was out of cync with pictures - ahead! Sweden scored on the radio before tv. We switched to non HD and sound improved. Half time was ok but commentary lacked clarity from background noise.

Sorry I don’t understand!

A poster with Nobby in their user name used to namechange to England players. But I guess that isn't you

Like your name!